In the art it is known to facilitate the downloading of playable content from a wide area network content server to playback devices having software and/or hardware appropriate for playing the playable content. Playback devices adapted to receive, store, and play playable content include devices such as personal computers, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, MP3 players, etc. To provide the playable content from the wide area network server to a playback device, various delivery mechanisms are currently employed. For example, the playable content may be delivered directly to a playback device from the wide area network content server and/or the playable content may be indirectly delivered to a playback device using an intermediate computing device, such as a personal computer or other device acting as an Internet gateway, that is adapted to communicate with both the wide area network content server as well as a playback device.
Systems and methods for recommending playable content, e.g., for purchase by a consumer, are also known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,238, assigned to Microsoft, describes a system for generating recommendations wherein a user supplies feedback pertaining to recommendations previously provided to the user and the system processes the feedback to provide future recommendations to the user. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,947,922, assigned to Xerox, describes a system in which implicit ratings are generated by monitoring user interactions with a playback device and the system uses the implicit ratings to generate recommendations for further playable content. Still further, unassigned, U.S. Published Application No. 2005/0038819 describes a system in which recommendations related to playable content are generated using information gathered via an e-commerce engine that receives selections of playable content desired to be purchased by a user. Yet further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,438,579, assigned to Agent Arts, Inc., describes a content and collaborative filtering engine which uses similarities in ratings provided by a community of users to provide playable content recommendations to a particular user.
While systems and methods such as those described above generally work for their intended purpose, a need exists for an improved system and method for distributing playable content from a wide area network content server which, among other things, also provides recommendations considering preferences of a user that have not in the past been made available for use by a recommendation engine associated with the wide area network content server.